


The Trickster and the Key

by EHyde



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-22
Updated: 2014-01-22
Packaged: 2018-01-09 16:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHyde/pseuds/EHyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki comes to Earth for a glowing green ball of energy that opens portals between worlds, instead of a glowing blue cube. He finds Dawn Summers instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Trickster and the Key

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this a while ago and I'm honestly not sure if I'll continue, but I wanted to share it anyway.

“My sister’s gonna kick your ass.” It was frustrating, Dawn thought, how often this happened—how despite all the training she’d gone through, she somehow always ended up relying on Buffy to come save her. On the other hand, Buffy was  _totally_  going to kick this guy’s ass, so …

“Not likely.”

Great. The smug ones were always annoying. “Oh yeah?” she shot back. “She’s fought gods before, and won.” Did it count as winning if you died in the process? Best not to mention that. “You won’t stand a chance.”

The man in the black and green robes just looked at her. What was he—sorcerer? Demon? Definitely not a vampire, she could tell that much, though he was pale enough for it. “Oh, I am no mere hellgod,” he said. “I am Loki, of Asgard, and no Slayer can hope to—”

“That’s what they all say,” said Dawn, miming a yawn, though inside she was starting to worry. She’d read about Loki in Giles’ books, and if he considered Glory to be beneath him … on the other hand, he seemed the type who considered everyone beneath him. “They learn. In the end. She’ll show you.”

“You know she’s not your sister!” he snapped.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, but I do,” said Loki, calm again. “Do you not know what you are?”

“Key, green ball of energy, opens portals between worlds, blah, blah, blah. That means yes,” she added, when Loki didn’t respond.

“Then you must know that all of the Slayer’s feelings for you are mere … inventions. I could take them away. Take away every false memory the two of you have of each other.”

“You wouldn’t … you couldn’t,” said Dawn, more firmly.

“It would be a simple matter. What do you think she would do, if she knew what you truly were? Destroy you? You’re very dangerous, you know. It would be the safest course of action.”

Now Dawn rolled her eyes. “Do a little more research next time you kidnap me, okay? Buffy knows I’m the Key.”

“She—does?”

“She knew before I did.”

“Then—why do you persist in calling her your sister?”

“Because she  _is_  my sister, dumbass. Anyway, what does that matter? Seeing as you’re just planning to kill me.”

“ _Kill_  you?” Loki looked genuinely confused. He took her by her shoulders and stared into her eyes. “The  _idiots_ ,” he breathed. “They made you mortal.”

“Kinda the point.”

“I thought the point was to protect you,” said Loki. “How does making you capable of dying do that, exactly?”

Dawn hadn’t realized that being immortal was an option. Well, she knew that the Key had been around for centuries, but it wasn’t like she was willing to trade who she was for an eternity as a glowing ball of energy. “Well uh, I think it was more about protecting the Key—me—from being used, than about actually keeping me around.” Which … kind of sucked, now she thought about it that way.

“This changes things,” said Loki. “I will have to rethink this.” He stepped out of Dawn’s field of vision, and she twisted around in the chair she was tied to, trying to see what he was doing. Just pacing, apparently.

“What, you suddenly don’t want to kill people? You could have decided that a bit earlier.”

“Please.”

Okay, no change of heart there. “Then what’s to rethink?” she asked. “You kill me, open your portal, do … whatever the hell you need a portal for.  _Don’t_  pretend like you care about me, if you’re still gonna do all that.”

“A Key that can only be used once is almost completely useless to me,” Loki said flatly.

Nice to know her life wasn’t in immediate danger. But still. “So uh … if you’re not planning to kill me, I’m much less likely to try to run. Any chance you’ll untie me?”

Loki just looked at her with an expression that plainly said,  _just how stupid do you think I am?_  One of the other men, though—the SHIELD scientist that Loki had somehow brainwashed—began walking towards her.

“What are you doing?” Loki held his scepter out to block the man’s path.

“The Key wishes to be unbound.”

Dawn looked into the man’s unnaturally green eyes and it clicked. Loki’s scepter, with its green glowing crystal … “That’s drawing power from me, isn’t it?” Which was weird, but not the main concern at the moment. “And you used that to brainwash those guys which means … they have to do what I want. Not you.”

“I hold the scepter,” said Loki, but he looked unsure.

“Who do you answer to, me or him?” Dawn asked the scientist.

“The Key is … all there is,” he replied. Yeah, that was creepy. But it did confirm her suspicions.

“Okay, thanks. Don’t worry about untying me just yet,” she added. “We’ll sort that out later.” Mind-controlled minions were not something that Dawn particularly wanted. Like, at all. But the point was that she had them, and Loki didn’t. Though Loki was still armed and probably quite dangerous without them. She looked back at him. “You may be a god and all,” she said. “But I don’t think you’re doing a thing to me without my consent. So why don’t you put down your shiny toy and tell me just what you’re planning to do.”

Loki laughed. It was different than the way most bad guys tended to laugh and Dawn realized that Loki actually sounded as though he was amused at something. “I don’t know,” he said.

“You went to all that trouble to kidnap me without having a plan for what to do next?”

“There was a plan,” said Loki. “It involved a Key that was merely an object. This, oh, this is  _much_  better.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please, let me know if you'd like more of this! I'm honestly not sure where it's going, but if enough people are interested I will do my best to work something out :-) Also, feel free to come say hi on tumblr, I'm fallenwithstyle over there.


End file.
